2008-03-03

Zino Davidoff was born on March 11, 1906 in Kiev in what is now Ukraine, then a part of Czarist Russia. He was the eldest of four children born to Jewish tobacco merchant, Henri Davidoff. Even in his own autobiographical writings, the facts on Zino's youth are a bit hazy, as he was quite young during this time and could only piece together the some stories of his youth. His parents were either cigar merchants or cigarette manufacturers in Kiev. Fleeing the political turmoil and anti-Semitism prevalent in Russia, his parents left some of their family behind and emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland in 1911 for a better life and opened their own tobacconist shop in 1912. Finishing school in 1924, he went to Latin America to learn about the tobacco trade, spending time in such places as Argentina, Brazil, and finally Cuba where he spent two years working on a plantation and first encountered Cuban cigars.

Returning to Switzerland around 1930, he took over his parents' shop. What had originally been a modest tobacco shop grew into a rich business during and after World War II. Neutral Switzerland was spared much of the havoc wreaked elsewhere in Europe and became a haven for wealthy tobacco customers. Zino was particularly successful in marketing the Hoyo de Monterrey Châteaux Series of Cuban cigars created for Zurich cigar distributor A Dürr Co. in the 1940s and named after great Bordeaux wines. Around this time, Zino is also credited by many as having invented the first desktop cigar humidor, in order to preserve cigars at the same conditions of humidity and temperature under which they were rolled in Havana. Davidoff also had success writing several books on cigar smoking and Cuban cigar brands.

In 1970, Zino sold his small but highly successful tobacco shop in Geneva to the Max Oettinger Group. Zino stayed on as Davidoff’s ambassador until his death in 1994 at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife and daughter, who remained in Switzerland and by his siblings that had since moved to other parts of the world, mainly North America. Till his last moments, Zino an avid family man, sought out to find his lost family history back in what had been the Communist U.S.S.R. Unfortunately, many historical documents had been lost and so had his search. Not much information exists on their whereabouts, but through saved notes by Zino, it has been speculated that many had defected to North America in the early to mid 70's, some under new identities and family names.

Cuban Davidoff cigars

In 1967, Davidoff was approached by Cubatabaco, Cuba's state tobacco monopoly after the Revolution, about creating a personal brand of cigars for his stores. The cigars were rolled in the newly-established El Laguito factory in Havana, which had been established to roll Cuban President Fidel Castro's own private cigars, Cohíba. In 1969, the first productions of Davidoff cigars were released, which included the No. 1, the No. 2, and Ambassadrice (which all shared the same sizes as the early Cohiba line) and the Châteaux Series (now no longer under the Hoyo de Monterrey label, but exclusively made for the Davidoff marque).

In the 1970s, the Mille Series, a milder blend than the rest of the line, and the Dom Pérignon, named for the famous champagne, were released on the market. In 1986, a special limited release of 80 Aniversarios cigars were made to celebrate Zino's 80th birthday.

In 1982, the Château Yquem cigar produced by Davidoff was discontinued after the owner of Château d'Yquem wine protested their unauthorized use of the trade name. The Château Mouton Rothschild came out shortly after, though with a different blend and slightly different size than its predecessor.

The Cuban Davidoff Line

Apparently after numerous disputes over quality and ownership rights over the brand, Zino Davidoff and Cubatabaco decided to end their relationship. Leading up to this, Zino had publicly burned over one-hundred thousand of his cigars that he had deemed unfit to sell and of low quality in August of 1989. The Cuban Davidoff line was official discontinued in 1991 and an agreement was signed that no more Cuban Davidoff was sold in Davidoff shop worldwide, a Dominican-made Davidoff cigar having already hit the market in November of 1990, where production of the same sizes formerly made in Cuba continues to this day.

Former managers at El Laguito have claimed that the Davidoff blend was very similar to Cohíba, except with a lighter wrapper leaf. The bands used on Davidoff cigars themselves are of the same format as personalized diplomatic cigar bands had been in previous years. Adriano Martínez, a former executive of Habanos SA, confirmed in Min Ron Nee's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars that the Cohíba Línea 1492 was made to fill in the gap left by the discontinuation of Davidoff.

The huge success of the Davidoff brand is considered to have been instrumental in making Dominican premium cigars the number-one bestsellers worldwide.

Zino Davidoff passed away on January 14, 1994 at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife, a daughter and his three siblings. Not much information exists on their whereabouts, but through saved notes by Zino, it has been speculated that many had defected to North America in the early to mid 70's, some under new identities and family names.

Davidoff Products Today

In August 2006, Imperial Tobacco acquired the worldwide Davidoff Cigarettes trademark from its owners, Tchibo Holding AG for £368 million. Imperial Tobacco Group had been the licensee of the worldwide Davidoff Cigarettes trademark since its acquisition of Reemtsma in 2002.

The cigarette range includes the Magnum, Supreme, Classic, Mild, Lights, Magnum Lights, Slims, Ultra lights, Menthol and Gold. Rothmans, Benson & Hedges of Canada began importing Davidoff cigarettes for sale in the Canadian market in April 2007.

The Oettinger Davidoff Group owns the worldwide Davidoff trademark for tobacco products other than cigarettes. Davidoff cigars continue to be produced in the Dominican Republic, under the direction of cigar blender Heinrich "Henke" Kelner. Since moving, Davidoff has added an Aniversario series, a Millennium series, and a Special series of figurados to its lineup. Davidoff also produces a line of cigars known as "Zino" and a line of cigarillos.

Beyond tobacco products, Davidoff has expanded to include under its brand such items as pipes, humidors, watches, neckties, wallets, briefcases, pens, cognac, coffee and cologne.

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Davidoff is a popular German brand of high-end tobacco products (mainly cigars and cigarettes), produced by Imperial Tobacco following its purchase of Reemtsma Zigarettenfabriken.

The tobacco products are produced under licence of Davifoff & Cie, founded by Zino Davidoff and based in Geneve, Switzerland. The company also produces a line of high-end perfume, coffee, and fashion accessories.

In some countries, several varieties of vodka are also produced or sold under the brand. The cigarette line includes the standard "classic", "mild", "Lights Gold", "ultra lights" and "menthol" flavours, as well as the more expensive rich "Magnum" flavour. Due to legal issues, the sale of Davidoff Cigarettes is prohibited in the United States, however they can still be ordered from discount cigarette merchants on the Internet.

Davidoff cigars can however be found in most smoke shops throughout the globe, including the United States.

Davidoff continues to be our international flagship brand. Volumes grew by an average of 15 percent across all our regions in 2004, demonstrating Davidoff's international appeal.

Davidoff Magnum Cigarettes Davidoff Cigarettes were born to be elite among the cigarettes. No other brand in the world is able to match Davidoff cigarettes' prestige, superior taste and stylishness. The first Davidoff Cigarettes, the famous Davidoff Magnum, was created by Zino Davidoff exclusively for true tobacco connoisseurs. Buy Davidoff Cigarettes at our on-line store at discount price.

Little attention seems to have been paid in any of the writing on the subject of semi-subliminal advertising in non English speaking countries. This is presumably either on the assumption that it is largely an American phenomenon or that writers on the subject have no interest in languages other than English. The use of semi-subliminal ads has now spread considerably further than the US As these pages demonstrate it is relatively common in the UK In addition, whilst the author was on overseas holidays in 1998 and 1999 it became obvious that this type of manipulative advertising was also relatively common in some European countries. It was relatively easy to pick up examples in the current editions of popular magazines. On the basis that examples could be found in current magazines, it seems reasonable to assume that earlier examples also existed. Here are two Davidoff Cigarettes ads from German magazines. Each ad has artistically modified the smoke plume from the cigarette to show the figure of a woman. Additionally, if one views the close-up of the male smokers face from the ad on the left, one can notice curved shapes that could be perceived as the letter S just to the left of his nose. And, underneath his nose are many X shapes. To the left of the X's is an E. Even in countries where English is not the primary language the word sex is commonly understood by educated members of the public if not actually in common usage. And the caption is, as one can note, in English, indicating that this product is for a sophisticated audience. None of the 'letters' are particularly clear and you may wish to click on the rollover to view a larger version of the extract.

Davidoff Cigarettes fall into the segment of premium tobacco brands. These cigarettes are produced by Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH which has been recently purchased by the UK-based Imperial Tobacco company. Now Davidoff has become this company’s leading brand and is sold in many countries worldwide. Davidoff tobacco products (except the cigarettes, the brand also produces cigars) are manufactured under the license granted by Davidoff & Cie. This company is based in Switzerland and was founded by Zino Davidoff. Only high-quality tobacco blends are used to manufacture Davidoff Cigarettes. The following words were once said by Zino Davidoff: "I always wanted to create a cigarette that would make smoking the pleasure it should be". Since that, Davidoff brand has always adhered to the basic and original principle - ultimate quality is above all. The first cigarette created by Zino Davidoff was the world famous Davidoff Magnum. These cigarettes with strong and aromatic flavor were created for tobacco connoisseurs exclusively. The wide line of tobacco products from Davidoff are offered all over the world. In 1985 a fierce battle began over the copyright of the brand in the USA. This and other legal difficulties made Davidoff stop selling cigarettes in this country. However, those American smokers who still prefer the unique aroma of Davidoff can purchase the brand's products in various online shops.